Marshall Connolly with Catholic Online wrote an open letter asking Christians to stop doing something that started several years ago and still seems to be a disgusting trend. Some people claiming to be Christians are leaving servers fake $10 and $20 bills for tips. The bills look normal, but when unfolded they turn out to be religious readings.
One young man in Kansas named Garrett Wayman received such a “tip” and posted about it on Twitter. The pamphlet in the guise of a $20 bill tells Wayman, “There is something you can have more valuable than money” and advises the server Jesus died for our sins and that he should go get a bible and read the Book of John.
Marshall Connolly refers to this young man’s experience in his open letter to Christians. Here are two excerpts.
“It should go without saying that if a kid is working, and working hard in particular, giving them a Bible tract in lieu of actual payment, or in this case a customary tip, is a ridiculously unchristian thing to do. It's almost the moral equivalent of distributing Bibles to starving children.”
Connolly writes tricking people or being condescending is not a way to get someone to share an affinity with a Christian message and asks,
”Do you really believe that's doing His work?”
“A good Christian does not need to tell others they're Christian. It will be evident by how they treat others.”
It’s good to see more Christians speak out when they see disgraceful behavior being committed in the name of their faith. Last week one of the largest online Christian groups, Faithful America, posted a letter to a Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, demanding Cruz stop using the name of Jesus/Christianity to promote his bigoted, warmongering non-Christian agenda. Pseudo Christianity gives all Christians a bad name, whereas great Christian leaders like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and former President Jimmy Carter, and everyday Christians, have done real good.
On the side, one thing restaurant owners can also do to prevent this from happening would be to stop paying servers an average of $3 an hour causing them to depend on others to support them at customer’s whim. Restaurant owners should be required to pay minimum wage just like other industries are required to do and how they continue to get away with this in America is a crime in itself.
Cheers to Marshal Connolly, Catholic Online, Faithful America, and Christians who speak out against religious hypocrisy and wrongdoing.